high water
The state of the tide when the surface of the water is highest; the time when the tide is at the full.
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 17 It flows quarter floud, high water, or a still water. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 439 In twenty-four hours and almost fifty-two minutes; which is..the time between the high-water of one day and the high-water of the day following. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. xi, Put out to sea..at high-water. 1860 All Year Round No. 69. 449 High water is never so high, and low water is never so low, at quadratures as at syzygies. |
Hence
high-ˈwater mark.(
a)
lit. The mark left by the tide at high water, the line or level then touched;
esp. the highest line ever so touched. Also, by extension, the highest line touched by a flooded river or lake. (
b)
fig. The highest point of intensity, excellence, prosperity, or the like, attained. (
c)
jocular colloq. A dirty mark showing the limit to which a person has washed.
| (a) 1553 Brende Q. Curtius F vj, The worcke did growe from the bottome of the Sea..but not yet broughte to the hyghe water marcke. 1626 Bacon Sylva §2 Betweene the Low water and High water Marke. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. viii. 219 They..lay their eggs..in the sand, just above the high⁓water mark. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 180 The standard taken is neither high-water mark nor low-water mark, but the mean level between the two. 1892 J. D. Hood Waterspouts Yorksh. Wolds 48 Traces of the high-water-mark line apparent throughout the village. |
| (b) 1814 Earl of Dudley Lett. 13 June (1840) 43 The high-water mark of English faction is very much below the ebb of French violence. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Personal Wks. (Bohn) II. 132 The Ode on Immortality is the high⁓water-mark which the intellect has reached in this age. 1890 Spectator 31 May 766 He [Defoe] nearly touches the high⁓water mark of English prose. |
| (c) 1886 in Baumann Londinismen. 1899 Daily News 31 Jan. 6/4 The high-water mark is plainly visible above a tattered scarf tied loosely round his neck. |